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ot:w eeddees, and how to propagate them. 



BY JOHN WALSn. 



T requires rather nice discrimination to fix upon the best 

 of the new bedders, when offered for the first time, 

 without having to pay a lot of money for stuff" not worth 

 the expense of carriage home. The nurserymen do not 

 deserve such sound ratings as some people feel inclined 

 to giye them, when they have proved a thing to be utterly useless 

 for which they probably paid a long price. It is simply impossible 

 for any of the nurserymen to test the qualities of every plant they 

 send out by growing it several years in succession under a variety of 

 circumstances. I will not enter into the vexations and disappoint- 

 ments I have experienced in dealing with new bedding plants, but 

 will offer a few observations upon a few that are first-rate. Some 

 of these have been before the public for several years, and are now 

 obtainable at a cheap rate ; which is, I expect, a matter of some 

 little importance to many thousands of those who trust to the 

 Eloeal "Woeld for guidance in matters appertaining to garden 

 affairs. 



The first plant of this class that we come to is the Pyrethrum 

 Golden Featlier, one of the best golden-foliaged bedders we have, for 

 edging and forming marginal lines ; and it has the additional qualifi- 

 cation of being perfectly hardy. This is a grand consideration with 

 many amateurs who have only a small greenhouse to store the whole 

 of their plants in through the winter, as it will give space for several 

 hundred plants of other kinds. It has hitherto kept up its price pretty 

 well on account of its being slow to increase ; and it has but recently 

 been found to reproduce itself true from seed. The best course, 

 therefore, is to obtain a packet of seed at once, and sow it in a box 

 or pan, full of any light rich soil, and set it in a shady position until 

 the young plants are nicely up. A cold frame is a capital place, if 

 the room can be spared. When they are strong enough to handle, 

 pot them singly in small pots, and place in cold frame ; or they 

 may be pricked out in a bed of soil in the frame, at about the dis- 

 tance of three inches apart ; or they may be planted out in the open 

 border, in a warm and sheltered corner, where they can be protected 

 in very sharp weather with a sprinkling of dry litter. They can be 

 lifted from this border, and transposed to their summer quarters in 

 the month of April. Seed sown in the spring would require heat to 

 get it up, and a generous warmth to grow the plants along after- 

 wards — thus giving the same amount of trouble as a stove plant, 

 besides making the constitution of the plant nearly as tender, thus 

 preventing it being put out so early as it otherwise would if sown now 

 and treated as a hardy plant. To propagate by cuttings, deal with 

 them in much the same manner as with verbenas and other ordinary 

 bedding plants. Take the cuttings, and as early as they can conve- 

 niently be obtained in the autumn. Place them in a little warmth in 

 the spring, to start them into growth, when the tops will soon make 



